my standard for decades was to set Pricing, and stick to it
Period
now that doesn't mean i might not give a DISCOUNT to some parties
IF i felt i had a good enough reason
(like a favorite Nursing Home and such)
nevertheless, i gave them an Invoice which reflected my FULL PUBLISHED PRICE
and the next line item is marked "discount" and in fine print i would also indicate "why"
and the purpose of this was so that the Nursing Home, when asked what I was worth,
KNEW it and would say so
because we are our own worst enemies everytime a Musician just settles for
a pittance without much argument... because then that customer BELIEVES
that is all you are worth, AND will tell other people that, when they ask
i provided an invoice to every customer, payable to my Business account,
with clear description of services and times and breaks
regular customers got 2% 10 net 30 terms, new customers were due upon completion
minus deposit
for corporate customers and large private events, i also would often provide
a written report (within a months time) regarding how the event went
ciao
Ventura
my friend, Merv Cohn was a Union guy, and he also never lowered his prices,
but he took full advantage of that Loophole the Union won during the great
strike in the 40's with Hollywood, so the Union paid him out of that special fund to
play Nursing Homes and do other Pro-Bono public service gigs all over town
Merv was also the "Organist" playing his Farfisa SynthAccordion at all Washington Senators
Baseball games
